Office conflicts can be extremely damaging for a business.
When employees disagree to the point where it causes fractions to occur, it can easily start to erode away at morale with the contemporary office as a whole. This is damaging on so many levels.
Not only does it reduce the number of creative ideas that come from collaboration sessions around the modern boardroom tables, but it also increases the chances of mistakes, means that employees simply don’t try as hard as they used to, and basically makes the office a rather negative place to be. All of this affects productivity and in the end, profits.
However, it’s normal for people to disagree and perhaps misunderstand each other from time to time. For the most part, people simply agree to disagree and go on with their day but sometimes these disagreements can turn into a full-blown issue which makes the office go from serene to tense.
Check out his very useful video which talks about how to deal with office conflicts.
However, the single best way to overcome an office conflict is communication. That doesn’t mean shouting at each other and telling the other person that you’re right, it means approaching the conversation in a careful way and overcoming pitfalls.
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How?
Here are a few tips.
- Avoid using words that point to blame - “You did”, “you said”, “you always …” these are phrases that point the finger of blame. It also comes down to how you say it. Make sure that you keep your tone of voice even and blame-free, without resorting to words that tell the other person that you hold them accountable for the issue.
- Take it in turns to speak and don’t interrupt - Sit down somewhere quiet, perhaps in the office booths so you won’t be disturbed, and allow each one of you to speak without being interrupted. No matter how hard it is not to jump in and say what you think halfway through, wait until the end and listen to what the other person has to say, without judgement.
- Try to stick to the facts - It’s very easy to let your emotions come into play but when you do that, you’re allowing those emotions to control you. Instead, stick to the facts and state them clearly. It’s fine to say “I feel” but try and avoid allowing your emotions to dictate what you say and do next.
- Agree to disagree and state why - It’s likely that you’re not going to agree and that’s fine. However, you both need to be okay with this. If one of you is still secretly seething when you return to your office desk, the whole situation is just going to rumble on. State the reasons why you disagree and why it’s important overcome it and then just do it. Forget it, let it go. If you don’t, everyone around you will be dragged into it.
It’s not always possible to avoid conflicts but ensuring that you communicate clearly and you’re careful with what you say generally means that you have a much better chance of not being dragged into a conflict in the first place. Poor communication is one of the main causes for conflict, so focus on improving your communication skills from the get-go.